Our Lives As We Know Them
by 4spiring
Summary: My collection of one-shots for Twilight, "what happened when...?" sort of stories, mostly, but not always, events from the Cullens lives before they met Bella, Edward waking up, Rosalie seeing mini-Emmett etc. Basic summary, more detail inside. RxR.
1. Chapter 1

I Wonder...

Welcome to my little series of one-shots about the characters of the Twilight Saga/Series.

I was re-reading the books, and I kept wondering about different parts of the people's and vampire's lives, kept thinking up different one chapter stories I wanted to write. Instead I thought it would be much simpler to make it into this, have them all together, and have more of a reason to actually write them.

I plan to have each chapter from a single POV. They won't be in any sort of order, or updated with any regularity. They will just appear every so often. Some may be serious, some may not. I have the beginning of a Bella's POV one that should be up soon, 30 views and I'll post it.

I know I shouldn't have author note chapters so here's a quick thing, an introduction for Bella coming to Forks if you will, don't complain if it's crap. I just really want to get this thing started, don't judge me on this chapter, please? I know it is complete and utter crapness. It means no long A/Ns at the beginning and end of future chapters, hopefully.

Disclaimer: I do not own the Twilight Series/Saga, I only own my own curiosity.

The Forks Kids have an msn/aim/whatever conversation about the rumour going about town:

JessLuvinSome1 - hey

PrincessLauren - hi

JessLuvinSome1 - omg! have u heard bout the new girl thats coming to the skool

PrincessLauren - no what info u got

JessLuvinSome1 - apparently its the police chiefs daughter the one that caught you and conner drinking last oct

PrincessLauren - oh yeh him whats the girls name?

JessLuvinSome1 - dunno ill ask mike

/ SpikeyMikey has been added to the conversation /

SpikeyMikey - sup?

JessLuvinSome1 - u got any info from ur parents bout the police chiefs daughter thats coming to skool?

SpikeyMikey - sure, her names Isabella Swan, shes starting in jan, some sort of scandal tho, her moms still in AZ or something

PrincessLauren - oh really... wonder why she left

SpikeyMikey - no idea, apparently her mom was quite wild wonder what Isabellas like

JessLovinSome1 - guess well find out

JessLovinSome1 - omg! have u heard about the senior boys prank?

/cue mindless, grammarless chatter/

No need to review this chapter, but I do expect them for the rest of the chapters. Please?


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own the Twilight Series, it belongs to Stephenie Meyer.

Nightmares and Visions

"No, no, NO! No Edward, DON'T! Please NO!" The vampires pinning his arms back ignored me, and I couldn't escape the cold grasp of my own entrapment. Though I screamed at the figures who were destroying my heart, my cries went seemingly unnoticed. The dark, cold walls of the tower stretched up and up, into darkness, the stars visible through the small slitted window holes, flinging my words back at me, so they seemed to swirl about the enclosed room.

My eyes caught Edward's golden ones and suddenly he was behind me, whispering in my ear:

"Goodbye, Bella."

I woke up screaming.

Just a dream… But there was no Edward to comfort me when my eyes opened. I closed them again, soothing and calming myself with the thought that he was simply away hunting, thankful that he was not here to hear the worries that I had surely been muttering while unconscious.

"What were you dreaming about?"

I was still half asleep but the voice from the darkness brought me to my senses in an instant. The silky voice was clearly a vampire's, but it wasn't menacing in any way, it sounded simply curious. I sat up slowly and stared into the darkness, and as my eyes adjusted I managed to make out a pale face at the window, surrounded by tresses of blonde hair that shone in the moonlight. A vision of perfection to the eyes of many.

"Nothing," I answered guardedly, still trying to slow my breathing down to a normal tempo. "What are you doing here, Rosalie? I thought you were all away hunting?"

"That, was not 'nothing'. That was a 'something'." She spoke, pointedly, then walked over to the middle of my bedroom and crossed her arms, in a stance reminiscent of her original attitude towards me. "And I came back to check on you because Edward was being annoyingly nervous, and was brooding about you being alone.

"Also, I thought you'd want some warning. Alice is planning to do your make-up and hair for the practise dinner, she wants to see a new eyeshadow colour, or something, so she needs you to be at our house at twelve instead of one." She paused. "Now, back to this 'something'."

I groaned, both at the news she brought and the information she was trying to obtain. Suddenly Rosalie had disappeared, and there was a quiet knock at the door. Charlie.

"Bella? Are you okay?" He sounded sleepy, but wary.

"Yeah, I'm fine." I couldn't decide on whether I wanted him to go back to his own room, or whether I wanted him to stay and, so, force Rosalie to give up her interrogation.

The door opened and Charlie stuck his head in the room, "I heard you screaming, then voices." It must have reminded him of last winter, he would be worried that I was now talking to myself. Or that Edward had sneaked in, I knew Charlie still didn't like the idea even though he knew now that Edward and I were engaged, and that Edward was away 'camping' with his family for the weekend.

"Oh, I had a... nightmare. Just a ghosts and ghouls thing. I was talking to myself to convince myself that there's nothing there." I made my voice sound small and tired, putting him off any idea that there was anyone else in the room.

"Alright." Charlie gave me a sceptical look that was half-way between disbelief and "my daughter is loosing it", then peered round the room suspiciously, confirming my previous theory. "'Night."

"'Night." The door closed and Charlie's footsteps could be heard moving down the hall. I closed my eyes and when I opened them a minute later Rosalie was standing near the door, arms crossed, apparently listening. I stayed silent and five minutes later she turned round, which I took to mean that Charlie was now asleep.

I continued the conversation where it left off, hoping against hope that she would have forgotten the screaming.

"Well, you can tell Edward I'm fine, and that I'm going out with Renee and Phil for lunch tomorrow. And I had kinda guessed that Alice would have something new she wanted to try out."

Rosalie waited for me to continue. I waited for her to leave. After a minute of silence I made as if I was going back to sleep and said goodnight. I didn't hear the window open, instead I felt a weight pushing down at the end of the bed, Rosalie's voice, full of genuine concern, floating over to me:

"Is something bothering you? Being changed?" She hesitated. "The wedding?"

I was shocked and sat back up again, turning to face the blonde vampire and the worried expression she wore. "No, of course not. I..." I didn't want to admit what had caused my screaming, and I didn't want her to think I was getting cold feet. I especially didn't want her to think it around Edward.

"What then?"

I paused, then blurted out the fears from my dream before I could prevent myself. "It was the Volturi. They came before I was changed and- "

"Nothing is going to happen to any one. Edward's - almost -," she rolled her eyes, "completely accepted that he has no choice now to do anything but change you, and it's not like he's going to leave again." The interruption cut off the rest of my explanation, filling in the rest of what I was about to say, and adding words that I wasn't going to.

My breath caught when she mentioned leaving and I suddenly remembered the ending of the dream.

"You think he would? You thing he could?" Now Rosalie was shocked. Stupid vampires and their heightened senses.

"No. I don't. But, what if they made him? They've already tried to recruit him and Alice, what if they refused to take 'no' for an answer a second time?" I was starting to panic myself.

"No, they respect Carlisle far too much to do that, however much they might fear the size of our family. Now, you look pale. Sleep. Edward would rip my arm off if he thought I was keeping you awake. Not that Emmett would let him." As her thoughts turned to her husband she failed to notice the look on my face at the thought of limb removal. She turned round and smiled at me, and I realised that she had said "our family", not "my family".

I smiled back, "Thanks Rosalie." I meant it.

She stayed a few minutes longer, asking about how Renee and Phil were finding Forks and we discussed how long it would be before some serious intervention would be needed in Alice's wedding plans. It was the first time I think Rosalie and I had talked like that.

When she had gone I thought over the night's events, and compared Rosalie's words and actions with those of the ice queen I had first been presented with. I almost started to believe that I had dreamed it, or perhaps it was a hallucination, I never would have believed that Rosalie could be kind to me. Things had most definitely changed.


End file.
